MacWEEK articles from February 1996

MacWEEK archives from February 1996

New PC server line to join PCI generation. (Apple to introduce PCI-based Workgroup Server 8550, Workgroup Server 7250)(Product Announcement)
February 5, 1996... Apple is retooling its Workgroup Server line and at this month's Seybold Seminars in Boston will take the wraps off its first PCI-based models, sources said. The boxes will reportedly be offered with a choice of three software bundles that tailor...

Amelio at Apple helm; Spindler pulls rip cord. (CEO Michael Spindler and Chmn A.C. Mike Markkula are out of Apple, new chmn and CEO is Gilbert F. Amelio) (Company Operations)
February 5, 1996... The other shoe in Apple's restructuring plan has finally dropped. CEO Michael Spindler and Chairman A. C. Mike Markkula are out; board member Gilbert F. Amelio will step in. Last week in a hastily held meeting in New York, sources said,...

Mac OS hitches a ride on PPCP box at Demo. (Apple previews Apple OS running on PowerPC Platform system at Demo '96 show) (Technology Information)
February 5, 1996... Palm Springs, Calif. -- Apple came up with a show-stopper here at Demo 96 last week: the first public showing of the Mac OS running on a PowerPC Platform box. At the industry conference, Apple described the computer hardware as a 3-week-old...

Oracle Power Objects slips OOP into database creation. (object-oriented database development system) (Software Review)(Evaluation)
February 5, 1996... Score card: Oracle Power Objects 1.0 Oracle Corp. Overall value: 3 (Good) List price: $395* Oracle Power Objects offers a well-balanced database development environment for SQL databases. Seamlessly supporting Windows, Macintosh...

Adobe spinoff sheds new light on OPI strategy. (Luminous' ColorCentral 3.0 print spooler)(Product Announcement)
February 5, 1996... Less than a month after spinning off from Adobe Systems Inc., Luminous Corp. is set to highlight a major upgrade to ColorCentral, its OPI image and print server software. ColorCentral 3.0, which will debut at this month's Seybold Seminars in...

Microsoft fails with OLE. (Microsoft has holes in its cross-platform clients/server development tools)(MacWEEK Insider) (Technology Information)(Column)
February 5, 1996... Did you feel it? There was a series of temblors last month as the world of client-server development tools for the Mac shifted. And aided by the altered landscape, I've noticed a glaring hole in Microsoft Corp.'s cross-platform technologies....

Apple preps Unix boxes: Shiner servers to have Mac ROMs. (new Unix servers code-named Shiner include the Network Server 500 132 and 700 150) (Product Development)
February 5, 1996... This month's Seybold Seminars 96 in Boston will reportedly be the launch site for Apple's new line of Unix servers, code-named Shiner. Contrary to previous reports, sources said, the devices include Mac ROMs, suggesting the workstations could...

Corel swings deal to buy WordPerfect; PC productivity site due in April. (to introduce new integrated software) (Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
February 5, 1996... Corel Inc. last week lassoed WordPerfect, Novell Inc.'s sputtering business applications division, for $115 million in cash and stock. But Corel's plans for the Mac market are far from firm. Corel CEO Michael Cowpland said the Ottawa-based...

CyberCash pays over Web. (CyberCash Mac Wallet free electronic commerce utility)(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
February 5, 1996... Mac users can breathe easier about using a credit card to purchase products over the Internet. CyberCash Inc. last week released a free electronic-commerce utility for the Mac. CyberCash Mac Wallet conducts credit card transactions over the...

DayStar to ship 2 high-end Genesis models. (DayStar Digital's Genesis MP 600 64/5000, Genesis MP 600 32/2000 Mac clones)(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
February 5, 1996... DayStar Digital Inc. this week will release a pair of high-performance Genesis MP 600 models, new additions to its line of multiple-processor Mac clones. Aimed at the graphics-workstation market, DayStar's new 600 models are based on the...

Apple lowers Performa prices, adds new config. (Performa 6290CD based on Performa 6300 microcomputer)(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
February 5, 1996... Apple has cut Performa prices and will introduce a new Performa configuration next week. Prices of the Performa 5215, 6116, 6200 and 6300 have dropped by an average of 8 percent, or $175. The new Performa 6290CD will be based on the Performa...

MYOB update adds custom reports. (BestWare's MYOB Accounting 6.0, MYOB Accounting with Payroll 6.0 accounting software)(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
February 5, 1996... Offering number-crunching assistance to small businesses, BestWare Inc. recently updated its MYOB Accounting software. Version 6.0 of the $90 MYOB Accounting and $140 MYOB Accounting with Payroll features new customizable reports, expanded...

New Sonar versions surface. (Virginia Systems Software Services' Sonar Bookends 4.0 indexing software)(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
February 5, 1996... Making it easier for readers to leaf through data, Virginia Systems Software Services Inc. last week updated its Sonar Bookends indexing software. Version 4.0 of the $195 software lets users automatically convert a single-level list of authors...

Visioneer whittles PaperPort price. (PaperPort Vx's price reduced) (Product Information)(Brief Article)
February 5, 1996... Visioneer Inc. last week cut the price of its popular desktop document-scanning system. The company announced that it had reduced the cost of the PaperPort Vx by $70; the compact OCR scanning package now fetches an estimated street price of...

Windows util set for Mac CD-ROMs. (Ballard Synergy's d-Time CD-ROM accelerator software)(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
February 5, 1996... Ballard Synergy, a player in the arena of Windows storage utilities, this month will enter the Mac field with new CD-ROM accelerator software. The company said its $49.95 d-Time will boost access times and data transfer rates. While the...

Okidata preps PS printers. (OL1200/PS, OL810e/PS printers)(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
February 5, 1996... Okidata this month will release a pair of new printers aimed at workgroups. The $1,839 OL1200/PS and $1,439 OL810e/PS are based on the company's LED engines. Both legal-size printers come with Adobe PostScript Level 2, PCL 5E emulation and...

MIDI Land speakers meld sound with 3-D. (MLi-370, MLi-S35, MLi-95 speakers)(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
February 5, 1996... MIDI Land Inc. hopes to sweeten the experience of on-screen virtual reality with a taste of auditory candy. The company released three systems; two output simulated 3-D sound via a built-in digital signal processor. > The MLi-370, priced at...

Flat and sassy. (Panasonic Communications and Systems' PanaFlat 17 flat-screen display)(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
February 5, 1996... Panasonic Communications and Systems Co. of Secaucus, N.J., unveiled PanaFlat 17, a new flat-screen display with an estimated street price of $999. Slated to ship in May, the monitor will have a dot pitch of 0.24mm and display images at...

MAG unpacks Technitron. (MAG InnoVision's DX15T, DX17T Technitron color monitors)(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
February 5, 1996... MAG InnoVision Co. Inc. of Santa Ana, Calif., recently released its Technitron series of color monitors. Based on Trinitron tubes, the 15-inch DX15T and 17-inch DX17T cost $499 and $899, respectively. The 15-inch model comes with an on-screen...

ViewSonic's hefty display. (ViewSonic 29A 29-inch display)(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
February 5, 1996... ViewSonic Corp.'s recent offering is a $3,995 29-inch display aimed at presentations and demonstrations. ViewSonic 29A from the Walnut, Calif.-based company sports a 27-inch image area and provides resolutions up to 1,024 by 768 at a refresh...

New crop of monitors. (Techmedia Computer Systems' TCM-1750 17-inch, TCM-2050 20-inch monitors)(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
February 5, 1996... Techmedia Computer Systems Corp. of Garden Grove, Calif., recently showed new 17-inch and 20-inch color monitors. The 17-inch $699 TCM-1750 displays images at resolutions up to 1,152 by 870 at a 72-Hz refresh rate. The larger TCM-2050, which...

ScanAce III targets pros: low-cost scanner captures 36 bits. (Pacific Image Electronics' flat-bed scanner)(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
February 5, 1996... Focusing new efforts on the graphics market, Pacific Image Electronics Inc. recently announced a low-cost color flatbed scanner aimed at imaging professionals. Due to ship by the end of the month, the $1,095 ScanAce III resembles the $749...

Ashlar app lowers CAD costs. (DrawingBoard software)(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
February 5, 1996... Ashlar Inc. is slated to bring Mac-based drafting to the masses next week when it ships DrawingBoard, a low-cost 2-D CAD program. Priced at $249.95, DrawingBoard is based on the same technology as Vellum, Ashlar's full-featured $1,495 CAD...

Video Toolkit edits analog, digital clips. (Videonics' video-editing software)(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
February 5, 1996... Packing three video functions into one low-cost package, Videonics Inc. is now shipping the Video Toolkit. The software lets users log video clips, edit analog video and automate digital movie making. Video Toolkit's video log lets users...

Sharp delivers new LCD projection gear. (Sharp Electronics' QA-1800, XG-E1000U LCDs)(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
February 5, 1996... Sharp Electronics Corp. in January honed its LCD projection line with a new panel and a multimedia projector. Sharp's QA-1800, priced at $6,295, features a 10.4-inch active-matrix LCD that projects 24-bit color at resolutions up to 800 by 600...

Cataloger tracks multimedia. (MediaWay's Media Assets cataloging application)(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
February 5, 1996... Putting a fresh face on its system for storage and management of multimedia files, MediaWay Inc. this week will roll out MediaAssets, a cataloging application that acts as a front end to the company's MediaDB client-server database. Available...

3-D breathes life into Bugs Bunny. (Warner Brothers' Consumer Products division uses Mac 3-D technology)(Screen Test) (Technology Information)(Brief Article)
February 5, 1996... Everyone recognizes Bugs Bunny when they see him, but most would be hard-pressed to draw the popular cartoon character from behind. And what color are those ears, exactly? These are the problems faced by Warner Bros.' Consumer Products...

Graphic details.
February 5, 1996... Virtus Corp. of Cary, N.C., has delivered Virtus Voyager, a free Virtual Reality Modeling Language browser for users of its Virtus WalkThrough software. The software lets users view textures and draw on URL (Uniform Resource Locator) links, the...

Omniscience pays off with portable Mac DB: compact app fits on a PowerBook. (Omniscience Object Technology's Omniscience 2.2 database for the Mac)(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
February 5, 1996... At least one company has fully adopted the product philosophy that less is more. Omniscience Object Technology Inc. is now shipping a full-featured database for the Mac that it said is compact enough to put on a PowerBook. Version 2.2 of the...

Forte readies client-server tool. (Forte Software's Forte Express visual application generator) (Product Development)(Brief Article)
February 5, 1996... With an eye toward speeding client-server development, Forte Software Inc. said it plans to ship by spring a visual application generator based on the company's high-end database tools. The company said users will be able to import database...

NetLock secures net transactions. (Hughes NetLock's NetLock cyptography software for encrypting packets on LANs and WANs)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 5, 1996... Sending secure data transmissions on a network is the business of Hughes NetLock, a business unit of Hughes Aircraft Co., which has announced NetLock, a client-server package for encrypting packets on LANs and WANs. NetLock creates a...

MDG lets 4D churn out Web pages. (MDG Computer Services' WebServer 4D Web server written in 4th Dimension)(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
February 5, 1996... MDG Computer Services Inc. in January turned 4th Dimension into an HTTP server. Priced at $495, Web Server 4D is a full-featured Web server written in ACI US Inc.'s relational database. Web Server 4D was known as 4DHTTP when it was beta tested...

Sonic, Focus set to join Fast Ethernet parade. (Sonic Systems' Focus Enhancements to introduce Fast Ethernet cards) (Sonic's new Class II 100BASE T hub) (Focus' Hub 32RM, 16RM, MiniHub5)(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
February 5, 1996... The new year has arrived faster than usual, with Sonic Systems Inc. shipping a family of Fast Ethernet products and Focus Enhancements Inc. announcing its own plans for a line of 100BASE T devices for the Mac. Among Sonic's new Fast Ethernet...

Cypress redials PhonePro. (Cypress Research's PhonePro 3.0 application development tool for telephones)(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
February 5, 1996... Cypress Research Inc. has released Version 3.0 of PhonePro, its application-development tool for telephones. PhonePro's icon-based scripting language lets users create voice-mail systems. Version 3.0 boasts a new interface and adds support for...

PC Card modems. (TDK Systems' GlobeNetworker 3410, DataVoice 3400 PC Card fax/modems)(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
February 5, 1996... TDK Systems of Nevada City, Calif., has debuted two new PC Cards, one that combines a fax modem with Ethernet support and one with fax modem and voice capabilities. The $599 GlobalNetworker 3410 supports 10BASE T, and its built-in V.34 fax modem...

Voice-mail modems. (Best Data Products' external fax modems) (Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
February 5, 1996... Best Data Products Inc. of Chatsworth, Calif., has announced two external fax modems with built-in voice mail. Messages can be recorded with a telephone handset; users can create up to 999 voice-mail boxes. The 28.8-Kbps fax modem and 14.4-Kbps...

Dayna's AddressBook. (Dayna Communications' bundling AddressBook software with modems) (Company Business and Marketing)
February 5, 1996... Salt Lake City-based Dayna Communications Inc. is bundling a new software package, AddressBook, with its modems. Once PowerTalk support is added, the product will let users organize e-mail, faxes and pages in one location. Currently, the product...

Viking's PC Card sails. (VIking Components' NetLink 28.8 PC Card fax modem)(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
February 5, 1996... Viking Components Inc. of Laguna Hills, Calif., is now shipping the NetLink 28.8, a PC Card fax modem. The $329 product can transmit data at 28.8 Kbps and faxes at 14.4 Kbps. Phone (714) 643-7255 or (800) 338-2361; fax (714) 643-7250.

Programming for a mix of Mac and PC systems. (cross-platform tools could help Mac gain in corporate arena) (Industry Trend or Event)
February 5, 1996... Cross-platform tools could help prevent the Mac's demise in the corporate arena. A stream of client-server, cross-platform development tools is slated to enter the Macintosh marketplace this year. However, giving companies the means to use...

Managers' development cross to bear. (cross-platform development still difficult for in-house developers)(Guest Editorial) (Technology Information)(Editorial)
February 5, 1996... Suppose your company has just hired a vice president who's hooked on Windows 95, and this person wants all future applications to support the Macintosh OS and Win32 APIs. As the manager of computing services, it falls to you to break the news to...

Developer surprised at ease of going from Pascal to C++. (Graphsoft experience porting MiniCad cross-platform application to object-oriented C++) (Product Information)
February 5, 1996... When Graphsoft Inc. of Columbia, Md., made the decision to port its cross-platform application MiniCad to object-oriented C++ three and a half years ago, management and staff were understandably nervous. This was not a small decision. There was...

Out of spin control. (Apple's PR and marketing division doing a poor job) (Company Business and Marketing)(Editorial)
February 5, 1996... At the press conference following Apple's lamentable shareholders meeting in January, Michael Spindler lashed out at the press for ignoring the company's impressive accomplishments. Certainly, shipping 1.3 million Macs in a single quarter with...

Passing observations on a corporation in crisis. (Apple is in trouble)(The Second Decade) (Company Business and Marketing)(Column)
February 5, 1996... I got up early last Monday specifically to read CEO Michael Spindler's open letter to customers, which ran in major newspapers around the country. I should have stayed in bed. I'm glad to know that the "idea of individual empowerment continues...

Letters.
February 5, 1996... I read with interest your comments on the possible Sun-Apple merger (01.22.96, Page 3). I've been using Solaris for several years now, and my first computer was a Mac SE, which I still use today. You state that one of the benefits of this...

Heidi chronicles: Roizen begins new developers era. (new Apple VP of Developer Relations Heidi Roizen)(The Mac Manager) (People)(Column)
February 5, 1996... When Heidi Roizen called me last week, I was surprised but very happy at the news. She told me she'd signed on to become Apple's new vice president of Developer Relations. Finally, I thought, a savvy outsider who understands the needs of...

Sculpt 3D upgrade adds features, but still not Mac-like. (Byte by Byte's Sculpt 3D 4.1 modeler and renderer)(Software Review)(Evaluation)
February 5, 1996... Score card: Sculpt 3D 4.1 Byte by Byte Corp. List price: $1,495* Overall value: 2 (Fair) Sculpt 3D 4.1 is a 3-D modeler and renderer with a set of potentially powerful features hampered by a very difficult interface. While the new...

Reviews forum.
February 5, 1996... Authoring app review Your review of scriptless multimedia authoring applications provided a good overall comparison of Interactive Media Corp.'s Special Delivery 2.1 and Pierian Spring Software's Digital Chisel 2.0 (see 12.11.95, Page 58)....

Web-page creation tools simplify Internet publishing.(Buyers Guide)
February 5, 1996... But as HTML evolves, users will need continual upgrades for their editors. A new generation of page-creation tools is doing for the Web what desktop publishing software did for paper in the 1980s. Users say building a Web site without HTML...

Searching for serail SCSI and Mac OS updates.(MacInTouch) (Product Support)(Column)
February 5, 1996... A more reliable SCSI architecture is something that is long overdue on the Macintosh. The Mac's original SCSI bus was an amazingly good architecture for its time and for years after its introduction on the Mac Plus, but its electrical...

StockWatch. (Industry Trend or Event)(Illustration)
February 5, 1996... 02.01.96 Weekly % close change Apple 28.38 -6.20 MacWEEK Composite* 281.40 -0.92 Software developers Adobe ...

RSA tightens security: debuts layered encryption tools. (RSA Data Security's Layered Open Crypto ToolKit)(Product Announcement)
February 5, 1996... Developers can now tip their hats to RSA Data Security Inc. for providing an easier way to add tighter, faster-performing security protocols to their applications. The company in January unveiled a new layered security tool kit, encryption...

Wrestling with power, privilege.(Mac the Knife) (Industry Trend or Event)(Column)
February 5, 1996... Dark-horse candidates seem to be all the rage these days. While an obscenely wealthy publishing heir (not named Ziff) is spending his leisure time attempting a hostile takeover of the Republican party, an equally long shot has already landed at...

Amelio rates top marks from industry insiders. (Apple CEO Gilbert Amelio) (Company Operations)
February 12, 1996... Turnaround specialist Gilbert Amelio worked his managerial magic at National Semiconductor Corp. and Rockwell International Corp., but can he use those same skills to help Apple? Industry observers gave an emphatic thumbs up last week for...

Drive vendors hit potholes, expect delays. (Iomega and SyQuest Technology) (Company Business and Marketing)
February 12, 1996... Continuing to pound each other in the removable storage market, Iomega Corp. and SyQuest Technology Inc. are finding a cold winter after their hype dreams. The pair are now facing difficulties in financing, product delays and corporate...

PBs to get PCI, CD-ROM in '96; reliability fixes due in Epic, Hooper models. (upgraded Apple Powerbooks) (Company Business and Marketing)
February 12, 1996... After seeing its PowerBooks go from award-winning CPUs to poor-selling laptops, Apple hopes to re-energize the line by adding PCI and CD-ROM in 1996, sources said. This summer's PowerBook release, code-named Epic (see 10.09.95, Page 1), will...

NASA wing jettisons Macs; move fuels staff discontent. (NASA standardizes to Windows platform) (Government Activity)
February 12, 1996... "Making me take a Pentium is like cutting off my right hand and sewing on a left hand," said a Mac user at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston who recently faced forced migration to Windows. "I'll learn to use the left hand, but there's no...

Shinko enters printer battle. (Shinko Technologies' ColorStream II DP and ColorStream II DPL color printers)(Product Announcement)
February 12, 1996... Shinko Technologies Inc. will try to increase its North American name recognition at this month's Seybold Seminars Boston 96 when it showcases its new PostScript dye-sublimation printers. Due out by mid-March, the A-sized ColorStream II DP and...

New Illustrator plugs in, tunes up, branches out. (Adobe Systems' Adobe Illustrator 6.0 draw software) (Software Review)(Evaluation)
February 12, 1996... Score card: Illustrator 6.0 Adobe Systems Inc. List price: $595* Overall value: 4 (Very good) With Illustrator 6, Adobe has expanded its powerhouse design tool and more or less caught up with its strongest competitor, Macromedia...

Digital cameras focus on two market niches. (Dicomed's BigShot 3000 and BigShot 4000; The Associated Press' News Camera 2000e digital cameras)(Product Announcement)
February 12, 1996... Two more contestants are entering the crowded digital camera race, each targeting a specific area. Dicomed Inc. is angling for photo professionals who need high-quality images, while The Associated Press is focusing on photojournalists....

Agfa revs capstans, intros imagesetter; SelectSet Avantra to debut at Seybold. (Agfa's SelectSet Avantra 30 drum imagesetter and AccuSet product line upgrades at Seybold Seminars)(Product Announcement)
February 12, 1996... Agfa will showcase a new four-up imagesetter and the high-end model of the company's enhanced capstan line at this month's Seybold Seminars in Boston. The $130,000 SelectSet Avantra 30, due by spring, will feature a 30-by-25-inch format for...

XPert Tools Volume II packs 15 XTensions. (lowly apprentice production Inc. upgrades QuartXTensions with XPert Tools Volume II and ShadowCaster 2.0 desktop publishing extensions)(Product Announcement)
February 12, 1996... The Carlsbad, Calif.-based a lowly apprentice production Inc. has upgraded its lineup of QuarkXTensions with new versions of its XPert Tools and ShadowCaster packages. Both packages are distributed by XChange Publishing Systems International....

Ray Dream third-party plug-ins come true. (RAYflect Inc's Professional Lens Pack and 3D Fun Pack for Ray Dream Studio image processing software)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 12, 1996... In a new twist on its 3-D capabilities, Ray Dream Inc.'s Ray Dream Studio recently joined the growing list of applications that support third-party plug-ins. Paris-based RAYflect Inc. has created two groups of plug-ins: the 3D Fun Pack and the...

Hermstedt, Sat-Sagem to offer ISDN solutions; crop of PCI cards due from Europe. (Hermstedt USA's Leonardo SP and Leonardo XL ISDN modem adapters and Sat-Sagem's Planet ISDN modem adapter and Meet-Me videoconferencing equipment)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 12, 1996... Users seeking ISDN options that fit a Mac PCI slot can look to two European vendors that are bringing their cards to the United States. Hermstedt GmbH, a major player in the German ISDN, or Integrated Services Digital Network, market, in March...

100VG-AnyLAN comes to the Mac. (Ragula Systems introduces PCI card) (Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
February 12, 1996... Although 100VG-AnyLAN became a standard around the time 100BASE T did, most Macintosh users have heard more about the latter than the former. This is because no company offered a Mac 100VG card, a situation about to be resolved by Ragula Systems...

Compatible readies routers. (Compatible Systems' MicroRouter 2200R, MicroRouter 1200i routers)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 12, 1996... Compatible Systems Corp. said it plans to ship this month several routers that will offer multiprotocol and Internet capabilities. The MicroRouter 2200R will route AppleTalk, DECnet, TCP/IP and IPX over LANs and will support Frame Relay and...

ForeFront to put conferencing on RoundTable. (ForeFront Group's client/server conferencing package)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 12, 1996... While chivalry may be dead, the art of Internet-based conversation is alive and kicking in The ForeFront Group Inc.'s RoundTable. A client-server conferencing package, RoundTable will not support sharing video but instead will have a window for...

Network traffic. (News Briefs)(Brief Article)
February 12, 1996... Neon ships LANsurveyor 3.0, Frame Relay, ISDN on a router Neon Software Inc. is shipping Version 3.0 of LANsurveyor, the Lafayette, Calif., company's software for managing AppleTalk networks. The new version adds a tool bar, support for...

Lessons to learn. (Apple CEOs) (Company Operations)
February 12, 1996... Departing CEO Michael Spindler fought hard to eliminate the cult of personality from Apple. He saw the ghosts of Steve Jobs, John Sculley and others as anchors to a long-dead past that he wanted the company to leave behind. As it happens, it was...

'Transformation' sounds good, but vision needed. (Apple CEO Gilbert Amelio) (The Second Decade) (Company Operations)(Column)
February 12, 1996... Even before Gilbert Amelio's appointment as chairman and CEO of Apple was official, I dashed off to my local bookstore to pick up a copy of his book, "Profit from Experience," co-written with William Simon and published just last month by Van...

Times have been better, but they could be worse. (Apple CEO Gilbert Amelio and management issues) (The Mac Manager) (Company Operations)(Column)
February 12, 1996... "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times." If Charles Dickens were alive today, he might be writing this about Apple for the London Daily Mirror. Alas, today's great newspaper writers are not covering the goings-on at Apple, or we...

Bringing it all back home. (Apple at Seybold Seminars 96) (MacWEEK Insider) (Industry Trend or Event)(Column)
February 12, 1996... In light of all the Wagnerian contortions happening in Cupertino, my corner of MacWEEK -- GA -- seems like Switzerland: placid, happy and situated high above the blood baths that have made Apple's executive cadre look a little like they're...

Tango twirls Web servers in dance with databases. (EveryWare Development's Tango Web construction kit and application generator) (Software Review)(Evaluation)
February 12, 1996... Score card: Tango 1.0 EveryWare Development Corp. List price: $495* Overall value: 4 (Very good) Tango is a construction kit and application generator for professional developers to integrate StarNine Technologies Inc.'s WebStar...

Extensis PageTools 2.0. (desktop publishing add-on) (Software Review)(Evaluation)
February 12, 1996... Overall value: 4 (Very good) With PageTools 2.0, Extensis Corp. has broadened the scope of its original pack of Adobe PageMaker plug-ins while improving the most important of the existing components. Eight new modules have been added to the 10...

Day-Timer Organizer 2.0. (Day-Timer Technologies' PIM) (Software Review)(Evaluation)
February 12, 1996... Overall value: 2 (Fair) With the release of Day-Timer Organizer 2.0, Day-Timer Technologies has shown that it's possible to build a bridge between print and electronic organizers and even cross-platform networks while providing a consistent,...

OneClick 1.0. (WestCode Software's scripting tool) (Software Review)(Evaluation)
February 12, 1996... Overall value: 4 (Very good) WestCode Software Inc.'s OneClick is something of an anomaly. It's a complex scripting tool that should appeal to both experienced and beginning Macintosh users. The $129 package functions as a palette-based...

Fonts remain a black art, so we bone up on rites. (font software updates and procedural task management)(MacInTouch) (Technology Information)(Column)
February 12, 1996... Fonts live alongside SCSI devices in the world of Macintosh voodoo, and PCI-based Macs brought new problems to people who work with large numbers of fonts. A combination of the latest software updates and procedural rites developed through trial...

Sony shooting for niche; camera targeted at business users. (Sony Electronics' DKC-ID1 digital camera)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 12, 1996... Consumer products giant Sony Electronics Inc. hopes to capture business users with its next digital camera. Sony will announce the DKC-ID1 next week and plans to ship the camera this summer. Pricing will probably be less than $2,000. The new...

Microsoft casts net for Apple employees. (recruiting efforts) (Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
February 12, 1996... Microsoft Corp. is attempting to gain from Apple's losses. The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant this month sent scores of faxes to job-recruitment agencies in Silicon Valley and elsewhere in hopes of pinpointing recently laid-off Apple...

Netscape Navigator 2.0 graduates from beta testing. (Netscape Communication's Web browser)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 12, 1996... Netscape Communications Corp.'s Web browser, Navigator 2.0, is now officially shipping. The upgrade provides more robust Usenet newsgroup and e-mail clients, and it introduces a new plug-in architecture that allows third-party companies to...

PowerTap taps speed. (Emerson Kennedy's PowerTap 3.0 application development software)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 12, 1996... Providing developers with added means to boost speeds, Emerson Kennedy recently released a multiple-processor update to PowerTap, its distributed processing API. Version 3.0 of the PowerTap library supports DayStar Digital Inc.'s nPower system...

Four chips stoke Total PowerSMP. (Total Impact's power accelerator chip)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 12, 1996... Packing multiple PowerPC chips, Total Impact's new PCI accelerator made its debut last week. Total PowerSMP, which is due in March, comes with one, two or four PowerPC 604 processors. Users can order the board with chips running at 100 , 120 ,...

Batten down the hatches: lab managers protect Macs. (descriptions of five security software packages) (Product Information)
February 12, 1996... In a public Mac lab, security is as basic as keeping users from rearranging the hard drives. Public academic computer labs are a security manager's nightmare. They're often understaffed and overcrowded and need to be available around the...

All document systems great and small. (Second Glance Software's E-Paper document-scanning and archiving software; Blueridge Technologies' OptixWEB text processing software and Optix DB Publisher CD-ROM mastering software)(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
February 12, 1996... New products from Second Glance Software and Blueridge Technologies Inc. will cover the high and low ends of document-image management. > Second Glance recently took the wraps off e*Paper, a new Macintosh-based suite of document-scanning and...

MDI eyes 2.6-Gbyte MO. (Micro Design International's SCSI Express SE2600S magneto-optical drive)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 12, 1996... Micro Design International Inc. this month will release a new high-capacity model in its SCSI Express line of magneto-optical drives. The $3,195 SE2600S handles ISO-standard 2.6-Gbyte, 5.25-inch MO cartridges, as well as older 1.3-Gbyte and...